FlashReport Weblog on California Politics

Yesterday the Los Angeles Times “Politi-Cal” politics blog
carried a story by ace reporter Seema Mehta talking about how,
at their convention this weekend, California Democrats are looking
at changing their rules so that local caucuses of Democrat leaders
can gather and endorse candidates for Congress and the State
Legislature. Thanks to the “reforms” given to us with the
passage of Proposition 14, political parties can no longer use the
June election as a mechanism for their registered party members to
hold a primary.

At the State GOP convention last month a coalition made up
primarily of federal and state legislative leaders passed a plan
that takes a much different course than the Democrats. Under
the GOP’s new rules, it is a very restrictive process for the party
to support a candidate before the June election (it takes a 2/3rds
vote of every County Central Committee that overlaps a part of a
district and then a 2/3rds vote of the State Party Board of
Directors —trust me, very… Read More

I first would would like to wish everyone a Happy
Easter and Passover!

Criticizing Barack Hussein Obama is fair game. And there is
plenty to criticize. I should know – Obama stuck me by name on his
website’s famous enemies list – “Fight the Smears” – during the
2008 Presidential campaign, because of the website and PAC that I
lawyer and co-manage at www.ExposeObama.com. He didn’t like our
questions about his health care plan, his associations with
radicals and a former communist, our criticism of his buddy and
preacher Jeremiah Wright, and much more.

I didn’t like the publicity of getting on Obama’s enemies list,
and its aftermath, which have included Jerry Brown’s campaign
smearing me for being a “birther.” But I probably earned it,
whether I am or not by just publishing questions that Obama would
just as soon not have wanted magnified, including raising questions
about his birth certificate, the same questions now being trumpeted
by Donald Trump.

So, speaking as a professional Obama watcher and anointed enemy
of the President, I think I can speak with some… Read More

Earlier this week, former U.S. Representative Chris Chocola,
President of the Club for
Growth, made a visit to California. I caught up to
Chocola at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel where he appeared at an event
for GenNext, an organization
to which I belong. Before the event, I was able to
arrange for some time to interview Chocola about the Club and what
they are up to.

For those who are not familiar with the Club for Growth, they
are an organization that is laser-focused on issues of economic
liberty and free markets. Rather than get into more detail, I
invite you to relax, and enjoy this interview that takes about ten
minutes to watch…

Before leaving office last year, Republican Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger of California negotiated new contracts and
pension reforms with six state unions. The prison guards were the
only major union to hold out, figuring that they could get a better
deal once Democrat Jerry Brown assumed the governorship. They were
right.

The new contract that Mr. Brown and the guards
have negotiated uncaps the number of vacation days that officers
can cash in upon retirement, which is 80 for most state unions.
Since officers get eight weeks of time off each year, many prison
guards have racked up hundreds of unused vacation days. Officers
receive so many days off, the Brown administration says, that they
“can’t avoid exceeding the vacation cap.” That, in short, is Mr.
Brown’s justification… Read More

Look! In the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane!
No, it’s a blimp funded by elitist and hypocritical liberals
protesting conservative philanthropists Charles and David Koch.

At least that was the scene a few months ago in Palm Desert when
liberal groups like Common Cause protested outside a private
meeting held by the Koch brothers. In true liberal style,
AstroTurf demonstrators were bused in from all over the state to
protest. To show how serious they were, they even brought out
a blimp—the big guns.

So what egregious crime against liberalism had the Koch brothers
committed? Simple. They had the audacity to exercise their
First Amendment right to participate in the political process.

Liberal groups like Common Cause love to wrap themselves in a
cloak of constitutional protections to attack the constitutionally
protected rights of those who with whom they don’t agree. But
their hypocrisy goes beyond their unequal application of
constitutional rights.

Common Cause and other liberal groups associated with the event
are funded by the likes of George Soros and other wealthy
benefactors. Yet Common Cause’s entire beef with the… Read More

I am thinking that maturity was checked at the door when
Treasurer Bill Lockyer and Senate Republican Leader Darrell
Steinberg came into the office this week. I “get it”
that they are very unhappy, as liberals, that state revenues are
down to such an extreme that without tax increases it means that
there will be a significant reduction in state
services. To rabid lefties like Lockyer and Steinberg,
this must be almost heretical given their almost religious
adoration of the modern welfare state. The idea of any kind
of stalling, let alone a reversing of course of progressive
programs that redistribute wealth from some Californians to provide
it to others must make them ill in the pits of their stomachs (the
beneficiaries of this government-funded generosity are chosen, of
course, by liberal politicians who love to spend OPM – other
people’s money). I get that, and I sympathize. As a
conservative ideologue, I get the same feeling when the size and
scope of state government grows.

It is a fair and legitimate position for conservatives in the
legislature, who were not elected as liberals, to not want to
participate in increasing taxes in… Read More

I kid you not. In
an interview today, the President Pro Tem of the California
State Senate announced that he’s willing to target budget cuts to
GOP districts. In other words, he’s willing to hold hostage the
citizens in these districts because their fiscally-responsible
representatives aren’t willing to finance the irresponsible
spending of the majority party.

Since Democrats are more than willing to keep raising taxes
until there is literally nothing left in California, their
constituents will continue to receive services. Ironic how those
who are willing to frivolously spend money are the ones holding the
purse strings, taking money from the productive members of society.
Steinberg seems to believe that by targeting the budget cuts,
citizens in the GOP districts won’t be educated enough to
understand why services were cut (used as a pawn to raise taxes on
everyone), only that their services were cut and their ire will be
directed towards their own representative.

Steinberg went on to say, “You don’t want to pay for government,
well then, you get less of it.”… Read More

The California Republican Assembly is an institution in the
State of California. Venerable and influential, the CRA in
recent decades has been the “conscience of the Republican Party” —
or as some would say, the “Republican wing of the Republican
Party.” Conservative to its core, the organization of which I
proudly served as State President from 1995 – 1997 is in the midst
of internal strife, which came to a very public head at its recent
state convention in Sacramento.

While I was not at the convention, I thought that FlashReport
readers would enjoy hearing about how that event went — from two
decidedly different perspectives. On one side, you have Tom
Hudson, a CRA Vice Prsident who supported Celeste Greig’s
successful bid for a full two-year term as CRA President. On
the other side you have Maria England, longtime CRA activist who
was part of the team behind the unsuccessful bid of Karen England
(no relation) for CRA President.

While yours truly endorsed Celeste Greig early I, to be honest I
am still in a “fact finding” mode before I lay out my analysis of
what went right, and what went wrong… Read More